The traditional commute may have taken a hit from flexible working, parking restrictions and people eschewing car-ownership but drive-time radio is still speaking up around the world – even if some audience members are listening on their laptops at home. Station bosses want engaged listeners, while advertisers want to connect with everyone, especially people humming along as they edge along in traffic jams. It’s a coveted slot for those behind the mic too – hosts get here only by having spent years honing their craft, perfecting a welcoming tone that’s both authoritative and relaxed. 

Here, we celebrate the drive-time hosts who drum up engagement and continue to reel in remarkable audience numbers. Whether in Amman, Mexico City, Singapore, Seattle or Berlin, these presenters have fine-tuned their shows to match the time of day and mood of their city – not to mention the relaying of those all-important traffic updates. It’s this spontaneity that instils drive-time radio with a unique charm that can’t be replicated by podcasts or music-streaming services, despite the rhetoric that these mediums continue an unassailable rise. 

These six presenters might play music, broadcast news or engage listeners with games and competitions but each has mastered how to accompany their audience at a crucial part of the day – while making breakfast, during the commute, post-pick-up with a car full of children or easing into the evening at home. What unites them all is the relationship with listeners (something that isn’t necessarily shared by podcast hosts and music makers) and a clear understanding that what they do isn’t one-sided. Instead, it’s a collaborative endeavour that’s all about bringing people along for the ride. — L

The hallway that leads to the cna938 recording studio gives guests a tour of Singapore’s radio landscape. You’ll see door after door adorned with the logos of popular English, Tamil, Malay and Chinese-language stations, while their diverse music and chatter is safely soundproofed as they broadcast live to listeners across the city-state. 

cna938 is the radio station of Singapore’s multimedia news channel cna. Its studio has large windows that overlook the open-plan newsroom. It’s relatively quiet when Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman, hosts of the flagship English-language morning drive-time show Asia First, take to the air at 07.00. By mid-morning, though, the newsroom is bustling. 

“Growing up, drive-time was always on – when you’re sitting in the car with your dad as he takes you to school, that kind of stuff,” says Heng. “It’s the time when you catch up with everything that’s happened overnight around the world.” 

As the station’s opening show, Asia First sets the tone for the day. Despite its news focus, the spirit is conversational and often fun – in part due to Heng and Hairianto, whose friendly banter and natural rapport belie the fact that Hairianto only joined as a co-host in May. He and Heng are adept at handling the range of issues that come across their desk – be they wars and elections or extra legroom on aeroplanes – and flit seamlessly between the gravitas required for serious topics and the humour better suited to lighthearted ones.

The duo also enlivens commutes with an interactive “Question of the Day” segment, where they ask a question on air and listeners send in responses via Whatsapp. The pair solicit opinions on everything from at-home work policies to Taylor Swift.

Knowing that many listeners are alone in their cars and could be stuck in traffic, Heng and Hairianto see themselves as hosting a chatty dialogue with the audience rather than simply acting as newsreaders or staid presenters. Which is to say: they welcome dissent. 

“We have comments that come in saying, ‘No, we don’t agree with what you’re saying’ – and then that becomes a conversation as well,” says Hairianto. 

The listener submissions channel is always open and Heng and Hairianto occasionally share random messages. This spontaneity gives Asia First an endearing intimacy and can reveal the surprising topics that the audience want to give their two-cents on: a recent news item about dental hygiene prompted a listener to chime in with toothbrush recommendations. Fresh take.

“It’s direct and personal, and we keep it that way,” says Heng. “That’s something only radio can do.”

“Getting you home and playing your favourite music” is the simple promise that rings out from Play 99.5, in between pop tunes, lively ads and the mellifluous voice of Dana Darwish. The host has been accompanying Amman on the afternoon commute on Jordan’s top English-language radio station for the past five years. It’s a demanding four-hour shift every Sunday to Thursday from 15.00 to 19.00. During that time, Darwish expects to have multiple audiences, as the average car journey in Amman lasts just 20 minutes. 

The journeys might be short but Darwish understands that her listeners are impatient to get home. “That’s Jordanians,” she says. “If we’re kept at a stop sign for two minutes we lose our minds.” As a result, Darwish tries to keep her tone relaxed: “I try to be as soothing as possible. Maybe one day I will shift careers and start doing sleep podcasts.” 

As well as playing the hits – Darwish is aware of her young audience, made up mostly of 16 to 25-years-olds – the host is keen to use her show as a force for good. “I’ve revolved my entire show around bringing other people’s stories to light,” she says. Segments such as “Under the Spotlight” call attention to the talents of ordinary people, while “Play with the Athletes” showcases the Jordanian sports stars that, according to Darwish, don’t get their dues in the country, such as the taekwondo athlete Julyana Al-Sadeq. 

Play 99.5 has also built a reputation for its “out-of-the-box” competitions. One in particular – sponsored by the vehicle brand Jaguar Land Rover – is “forever etched” in Darwish’s mind. “The competition was getting people to roar like a jaguar,” she says. “I sat in the studio for hours just listening to voice notes of people roaring.” The partnership isn’t just an example of the programme’s proclivity for mood-boosting silliness either. It’s one of the many brand collaborations that kept the DriveBack Show going as a commercial success. Similarly, Jordan Kuwait Bank has sponsored the show for almost five years. 

Darwish is aware that the live radio landscape is changing but she remains confident in the continued appetite for shows like hers. The live element, she posits makes every show unique and can’t be replicated. “If you think about football, whether you’re watching today or tomorrow, the game isn’t going to change,” she says. “But why do you want to watch it live? Because it’s happening now, everyone’s together and you see people’s reactions. Radio is the same. We’re in the traffic together, listening together, chatting together – it creates a community.”

“I’m probably the only early morning presenter who doesn’t drink coffee,” says Marco Seiffert. Instead, the host drinks plenty of water at the break of dawn, during his drive into the Potsdam studio of Radioeins, a channel from Berlin-Brandenburg public broadcaster rbb.

Der Schöne Morgen (“The Beautiful Morning”) is steered by Seiffert along with his colleague Tom Böttcher every weekday, with the pair alternating with a female duo every other week. Since Seiffert joined in 2006, it has become the most listened to morning show in Berlin, Germany’s most competitive radio market. 

Seiffert sees the presenter’s role as catching his audience up with what’s happened during the night and what’s going on in Berlin and Brandenburg that day – as well as playing great music, of course. Instead of prank calls and prize draws, you’ll find witty jokes from the hosts and political analysis from leading journalists on all sides of the political spectrum. There’s also economics, arts, culture and sports coverage, and listeners can ask the kind of unusual questions that they’ve always wanted answered. 

Listeners are also encouraged to request songs that have somehow disappeared into the ether. Rather than being a Tiktok playback station too, music on Der Schöne Morgen serves as an exploration into new and unfamiliar realms. “Our selection requires a certain tolerance,” says Seiffert. “You’re going to find gems but you’re probably not going to like every single song. In my opinion, our listeners want to be reliably informed but they also want to be constantly surprised in terms of topics and music. Spotify and podcasts can hardly offer that.”

For the many listeners who tune in on their way to work – stuck in traffic or waiting at the train station – Seiffert sees the programme as a “familiar companion”. And despite serving listeners at rush hour, no one at the show is in a hurry. Live interviews often last up to four minutes, more than double the average of the show’s competitors. Der Schöne Morgen also doesn’t shy away from an argument. “Politicians can handle it,” says Seiffert. “You have to poke them a little, otherwise it gets boring.”

Overall, Seiffert puts the show’s success down to its authenticity: its hosts are allowed to be themselves, whatever their mood. “We don’t feel this inner pressure to be artificially cheerful,” he says. “I’m no different on and off air. If my favourite football team has just lost, I can be despondent. If I’ve been to a concert the night before, I might be a bit tired. It’s OK.”

The Der Schöne Morgen style is so unique in Germany that the show has developed a cult following far beyond the broadcasting area – and Seiffert, in particular, appreciates when listeners continue to tune in on holiday or after moving away from Berlin. “It’s always exciting for me when people take us with them wherever they go.”

When the weekday clock strikes 16.00 on the US’s West Coast, a pre-recorded voice announces, “You’re listening to Drive Time with Evie Stokes on kexp.” To avid listeners of the Seattle-based independent radio station, the name still takes some getting used to. For over 20 years, music-industry veteran Kevin Cole – who cut his teeth as a DJ at Minneapolis club First Avenue, where he counted Prince among his fans – commanded the afternoon slot.

Stokes took over the prime-time post in July, having worked her way up over 17 years from pulling records as an unpaid assistant to grinding out five-hour overnight shifts and, most recently, hosting Sunday afternoons. Now she peers out of the broadcast booth’s window while the station’s popular café and record store hums with customers. 

Drive Time reaches 75,000 listeners weekly, according to Nielsen Media Research. While those figures are relatively modest, kexp’s outsized influence comes from its tastemaker reputation for breaking up-and-coming artists. Touring musicians detour to Seattle so they can record one of the station’s highly coveted “Live on kexp” sessions. Stokes has hosted the likes of psychedelic rockers Crumb, southern gothic singer-songwriter Ethel Cain and London-based Afro-electronic outfit Ibibio Sound Machine.

Stokes’ promotion comes at a propitious time for kexp, which acquired a new frequency and began broadcasting on FM radio across the San Francisco Bay Area in March. The expanded range has led to a double-digit percentage growth in listenership. Broadcasting until 19.00, Stokes soundtracks the afternoon commute on the West Coast, while remaining mindful of kexp’s global listeners who tune in digitally. “A lot of people are winding down and settling in at home,” says Stokes. “I’ll ask them what they’re cooking for dinner. But then I have listeners in Australia going out for their morning run.”

She starts each show with a rough outline but allows the day’s mood to lead her. She’s also receptive to listener requests, even oddball ones. “A listener might request a song about horses and, before you know it, I’ve played seven songs on that theme,” she says.

Her empathetic voice also reaches her audience in their hour of need. A listener once requested comforting songs while lying in bed with a partner in the final moments of hospice care. “I looked for songs to bring them some peace,” she says, such as “Love is Stronger than Death” by The The.

These examples reflect Stokes’ attitude to radio and its uniquely live values. While she won’t shy away from solemnity when necessary, Stokes sees the afternoon peak as an ideal time to deploy her on-air philosophy, “Radio is best when it’s unexpected, thoughtful, fun to listen to and laugh-out-loud funny.” We couldn’t agree more.

Eight years ago, when Mexican radio presenter Gabriela Warkentin launched W Radio’s morning news show, the drive-time slot in Mexico City was tired and saturated. “We didn’t want to recreate the same hard-hitting product as other stations,” says Warkentin, who also works as a columnist for Spanish newspaper El País and Mexican title Reforma. Así las Cosas (“That’s the way it is”) was the result: a grounded show that delivers the news without over-dramatising the region’s political events. 

“The city is characterised by a tense and often violent social landscape: W Radio wants to offer clarity about complex subjects,” says Warkentin, sitting behind her mic, surrounded by broadsheet newspapers as she readies herself to read the day’s headlines.

On air between 07.00 and 10.00 every weekday, Así las Cosas sets listeners up for the working day. “Morning radio is a window for real-time interaction,” says Warkentin, who gets feedback from her listeners through call-ins and the station’s Whatsapp and social media channels. “There’s a tradition of cultivating a relationship with an audience via the radio in a way that cannot be achieved with television.”

On occasion, Warkentin’s excitable tone rises like that of a football commentator but it’s always tempered by her sharp insights. Loyal listeners engage in a dialogue with the presenter, offering feedback that has shaped the show. “Initially, there was criticism when we opened the broadcast with tense news stories. It’s not that listeners don’t want to know; they just don’t want to hear it as soon as they get out of bed,” says Warkentin. To create a smoother wake-up call that doesn’t demand so much of listeners, she now holds off until the second hour to cover tough topics. The programme now opens with an eight-minute news summary before Warkentin is joined by an economic or political correspondent for an in-depth conversation about the most pertinent story of the day. Warkentin wraps up the third hour with sports and science news. In between news and discussion segments, she plays upbeat Latin American music. 

Being one of the first voices to break domestic and international news has made Warkentin resilient. “During Mexico City’s large-scale earthquake in September 2017, W Radio kept broadcasting past midnight to try to spread information as effectively as possible. Listeners were scared – and so was I.”

Warkentin’s morning programme remains a welcome daily comfort, not only for residents of Mexico but also for the nation’s expats in Dubai, Tokyo, Sydney and beyond. “The morning slot provides a cathartic social moment,” says Warkentin. As the clock strikes 09.00 and W Radio’s countdown reverberates around the studio, Warkentin has a final scan of her script to prepare to go back on air for the closing hour of the show. “The real power of radio lies in its collective companionship.”